to think that this was a really crappy way to reduce school absenteeism?

[itsmeolord]

DD aged 9 came home from the childminders yesterday very upset.
There had been an assembly held in school headed by a lady from the LEA. She called the assembly "Lazy or poorly?"

She gave a talk on absenteeism and told the children that they were going to hand out fines to parents from now on for children being off school. (£50).
She then read out some names and called the children to the front, these children had 100% attendence this year and she told them they were going to get a treat.
Then she called out some more names including dd's. They were called to the front and asked to explain why they had missed school. After each explanation the woman asked the rest of the children to put hands up for "lazy" or "poorly".
DD said that she had missed a week because she had had german measles, she then burst into tears. Apparently quite a few of the other children were in tears as well.
Alot of children were putting hands up for "lazy", I think this is because they haven't got a concept of what is a good reason for absence or not and it wasn't properly explained.
The lady was counting hands up but not then saying, ok so we have x who think this is lazy , it is/isn't because x y z.
So dd was labelled as "lazy"
At the ned the lady then said something to the effect of "all children who were lazy this term are going to have to find a way to pay back mum and dad that £50...."

I'm really cross with this lady and the head as well for thinking this was a good way to deal with absence.

1. The school has very low unauthorised attendance.
2. There are a fair few children who have medical conditions which require regular time off school and will never get 100% attendance.
3. If there is am issue why not speak to the parents rather than make an example of children in front of their peers?

1. "Lazy or poorly" is a really shitty way to talkm about absence. People are absent for different reasons, bereavement, pre bereavement, family illness, whatever.

Surely there is a better way to differentiate between authorised and unauthorised.

Any ideas on what to do next would be gratefully received. I am thinking speaking to the head firts to clarify exactly what happened is best......

Just thought this might be of interest to those reading this thread; it's taken from the Bristol city council website. Elsewhere in the website it describes the 100% attendance as an 'aspirational target' and states that, "wherever possible 100% of the pupils should attend school 100% of the time". 95% attendance is acceptable though which, across a school year equates to having had one week off. Another thing to note is that most schools record attendance cumulatively so if your child has chickenpox and misses a week in Sept it will actually look worse than the child who misses a week in January, until the end of the year when it all balances out!

I don't think there's anything wrong with aiming for 100% but it's more effective when done on a half-termly basis so that poor child who had chickenpox in September is still in with a chance of receiving a certificate for the 2nd half-term/later in the year.

BRISTOL EDUCATION WELFARE SERVICE

Good practice guidance for schools to develop for parents

Absence ? Parent/Carer?s Guide

We would like to remind you that the school is trying hard to make sure all pupils are in school as often as possible. The list below shows which reasons we are willing to accept and those which we will not accept as important enough to authorise absence.

Authorised circumstances

? Illness - where a pupil is too ill to leave the house
? Illness - when a pupil has an infectious disease and you have phoned the school and agreed when they can return.
? If your child has an emergency medical or dental appointment.
? If you have a religious holiday to observe. The school should have details of the religion on the school information form. Dates must be given to the school by telephone or letter before the relevant dates to be observed.
? Family crisis - eg. Death or critical illness of close family member.
? Visit to another school for interview, examination etc. Again, dates to be agreed in advance with the school.
? If no other time is possible ten school days may be allowed for holiday. The school must agree the dates and a holiday form must be signed by you and the school before you go. It will be important for you to work closely with the school to ensure work missed is made up by your child. Please liaise with the school over dates before booking your holiday to ensure you avoid important school dates, ie SATs week.

Unauthorised circumstances

? Shopping - even if for school uniform or shoes
? Haircuts
? Staying home to look after parents/carers or other members of the family
? Absence due to illness of other member of the family or maternal pregnancy
? Looking after the house
? Birthdays or treats
? Day trips
? Staying at home to see visiting relatives. If unsure check with the school.
? Family holidays which are longer than ten school days or which add up to more than ten days during the year.
? Family holidays which have not been agreed and signed before you go.

If you are not sure, please ring the school to check before you allow your child to stay away from school.

Thank you There is a change of pargraph where it starts ''If a new system of fining parents...'' btw.

I am absolutely APPALLED at the humiliation these children went through in this assembly. As a KS2 teacher, if I had been there I would have had to say something and would NOT have allowed it to continue. Surely members of staff were in attendance? What on earth were they doing?!

A possible way to find out the name of the woman would be to look back through the Visitor Book that all visitors are usually expected to sign when entering a school. (Ours is kept on a shelf in the Reception Area and is therefore accessible by all...)

i think you would have had to hold me back. im outraged by this, i would check the facts then absolutely knock their blocks off over this horrible bullying assembly. i definitely think there is a case to answer here and id have their heads for this one.

best of luck itsme. go get em.

There is also sucj a thing as confidentiality. Asking children who are young to tell their peers why they were off is insensitive and also unfair, as they may be too scared to challenge authority, particularly in this situation. What if a child had been off as a parent or relly had died? God, I would be up there tomorrow morning wanting to know everything and what the school was planning to do about it.

SE13Mummy
Why are absent days due to illness counted in the attendance record? Surely that is discriminating to any child with health issues who has little to no chance of ever achieving 100%

This is completely different than keeping a child off school for a holiday.

Great letter teddybear

Teddy love the letter but I'd be tempted to send it to the governors as well should this turn out to be accurate.

TheMoreIReadOnHereTheMoreIConsiderHomeSchoolingTiggaxx

Tigga you always make me laugh
Teddy that is great. Well done.

Very much looking forward to hearing some kind of outcome on this.

Just proof read letter this morning. It should clearly say resolved in the last paragraph not resoled I blame baby-brain and lack of sleep for this! It might be a good idea to give it another proof read before sending.
Please keep us updated op.

OP, I´m glad you won´t be fined.

What it also shows is that the children have no comprehension.

German measles=lazy!

But also the humiliation of being voted lazy when you were clearly ill-you could end up thinking all your peers hate you!

It is a good letter, but you could probably make the message stronger if you shortened it. With all writing, the message is stronger if you say it as succinctly as possible.

I culdn't give a damn about why the children were off sick. This was wrong, and not the way to go about it. The assembly was appalling and some adult from the school in that assembly should have intervened, esp when they could see upset children.

I'd be fuming, so well done to OP for staying calm.

Please don't let this drop; take it all the way and get other parents on your side. The head must take responsibility for this and put it right. The LEA official must be seen to apologise to the children direct.

I am so sad for the OP's child.

Great lettter Teddy!

Good point Hulababy about the adults present (teachers) not having interviened.

Wow I too am almost speechless with this.
Please get together with all the other parents who want to complain and have a meeting with the head immediately.

I would also make it mandatory for Head to put in damage limitaion as mention by poster before. These children, yes all who attended the assembly, need to be re educated straightaway imo.AAAAAAAAAAAaargh!

I love the letter writing idea Perfect for all adults to see exactly what the children went through.

I would arrange a meeting with the head and complain.

Not really off topic, but look below the typing box.
Has anybody else seen the google ads at the bottom of the page? Or is it just me that can see "Attendance to School" and "Sickness Management" - I think it's a bit mean MNHQ?

MmeLindt, every school day counts for two sessions (morning and afternoon) so regardless of the reason why a child was absent, if they weren't at school it would be inaccurate to say that they had!

Sometimes in schools when we look for reasons why children aren't reaching their potential we would look at their attendance history, realise that they'd had lots of time off due to illness and put in support accordingly. If we didn't know that they'd been absent then I suppose it runs the risk of them not being supported but also of not being encouraged to reach their potential.

The difference is between authorised and unauthorised; a child with a chronic medical condition would have authorised absences which may still prevent them from getting 100% in the same way that it may prevent them from getting first prize in a 400m sprint on sports day. I've run attendance competitions based on 'incredible improvement' (these are alongside the ones for 100% weekly attendance) so that the children/parents who don't have 100% still have an opportunity to be recognised for improving their attendance.

IME rewarding 10% attendance is ridiculous. It encourages people to send in ill children to school, which is not beneficial to anyone.

SE13Mummy, I am not sure I understand correctly but it seems to me that 100% weekly attendance can be achieved quite often by most puplils so they would not feel bad if they have missed a few days for sickness because they can hope that next week they will get their 100% attendance. Now expecting a child to have 100% attendance all year is unateignable(sp?) More to the ponit, you cannot blamne a child for being poorly + some school (ours) do not accept the child back in school earlier than 48 hours after D&V virus for example, even if the child feels well in him/herself. You cannot on one hand penalise children who are poorly and not let them come to school on the other.

Thankfully, I never had these issue with my Dcs, they are poorly at time and miss school but to my knowledge (will verify)there is not prize for DCs with 100% attendance and thepoorly ones are not qualified as lazy.

100% attendance isn't unobtainable but it is unlikely which is why it can, at best, be described as an 'aspirational target'.

I introduced weekly attendance stickers, praise postcards if a whole class got 100% for a week and half-termly certificates for 100% because I thought these had more chance of making an impact than waiting for a whole year.

As a teacher I've been lucky enough to only need to take one day off for illness in the past 6 years so I've achieved 100% attendance for 5 of those years (and I'm not someone who goes in and spreads germs when I'm ill, just 'lucky' enough to only get ill in the school holidays).

I can vouch for certain heads being obsessed with attendance. Last term, lots of yr 6 children were due to sit a grammar school test, lasting from 8.30 (arrival time)- collection 11.45.
The head the day before told all year 6 that they had to return to school in the afternoon, there would be truancy officers patrolling the town to take them back if they were still there.
Needless to say, most parents stuck 2 fingers up at her and took their dcs out for lunch. then home. Other schools in the borough didn't make a fuss.
I hope you get a satisfactory result op.

SE13Mummy, I think your system is great.

I would make a difference though between an adult taking sick days and a child.

I can say that in the last 10 years or so I have never been poorly enough not to be able to get on whith things (am a SAHM) and in the years I was working had a couple of days of for sickness. Children seem to catch everything that passes and then pass it on to their sibblings. DD1 and DS2 had chickenpox about a week appart and when I was about to send DD1 back to school she got scarlatina then DS2 got it too both of them had to miss over two weeks school. Later the same year all 4 of my DCs got "slapped cheek" and more days off that really could not be helped. In most cases, adult have already gone through those illnesses and will not have to miss work because of them.

SE13 I think your system is questionable. If a child has a medical condition that means they have a lot of time off they will feel penalised for not having a 100% attendance. DS has various medical conditions and one of the things we keep being told by the experts is how important it is that they feel ?normal? and just like all other kids. How can this be achieved if teachers are penalising him for lower attendance. DS is also very academic so his attendance is not too much of a problem yet although I suspect this will change in secondary school.

It is NOT the same as doing a 400m sprint. Last time I looked it was not a legal requirement to run the 400m race.

If schools and teachers know of pupils or families that do not have good attendance and there is evidence to suggest there is not a valid reason then tackle them directly. As I said before encourage good hygiene amongst young children as this can reduce the spread of infections.

Drosophila, I have described the system we implemented in general. For children with chronic medical conditions we made alternative arrangements to ensure they weren't 'being penalised'. We always tackled families with poor attendance individually and personally but it is right to encourage the excellent attendance of those who are in school every day.

On MN people often complain that the well-behaved children are below the radar and rarely get noticed for being consistently well-behaved but that schools bend over backwards to reward the children with behaviour problems, why should the same sentiment not be applied to those who attend every day?

The point I was making about the sprint was that we don't all expect our children to win everything they take part in but that doesn't necessarily mean that we begrudge the winners the prize. To do so would be to return to the not-so-long-ago age where schools shied away from competition of any sort. Some children's gift may be having an immune system that means they need no time off school - why shouldn't that be celebrated?

Anyway, this is a long way from the OP which was to do with an inappropriate and insensitive assembly...